The laser & extraction cost me $800au. the other costs (hospital, etc) totalled about $1,500. i had it done in Sydney which is quite expensive, so i'm not sure if that will be any good to you.

i got the same "no idea what it is/just deal with it" speech from dermatologists, and it took me forever to find one that had treated the condition before. but definitely make sure they have done it before and that you have confidence in them because there are so many things that can go wrong with even the simplest laser surgery. and the last thing you want is to end up with a raised scar on your lip. about the lasers, there may be new lasers that produce the same effect, so i'd ask to compare them to the CO2. oh, and if possible, ask for any before/after photos. actually, ask as many questions as you can because i didn't, and i really wish i had.

the spots that came back were both old and new. the most visible are the ones around the corners of my lip, they're very small and hard to extract. the newer spots seemed to appear after i had healed. so i guess whatever caused them in the first place was still causing more. the last post i said 70% were gone, it's more like 30 - 40% now to be honest.
also, the spots seemed to vary in size as they returned. and they still came back in clusters causing that discolourated look on my lips.

your last question, i can't answer. i forgot to ask the spot size because i felt so confident in the doctors. however, they didn't apply any cream in between and they passed over many times with the laser. the deeper the spots, the more passes. and unfortunately, the more passes, the more chance of scarring. which, despite the fact that i was told scarring would be "extremely rare in this case" i've noticed a small, raised area on my lower lip that was not caused be anything else. thankfully it's not that bad, but it's still going to take about 2 years to fully heal apparently.

looking back, i probably shouldn't have had any laser treatment at all. but i'm not the type of person to just sit back and do nothing, so F it.

I finally found a laser doctor who is willing to take a look and had experience using laser to treat this condition. I will be seing him in December hopefully he can do something about it.

When you mention "extract them after the laser", what exactly do you mean? How do they extract them? sounds scary to me in terms of leaving scar...

Also... I wonder if the fact that they keep coming back have anything to do with your age... I assume these things will slow their growth after a certain age... I am 28 and I hope the spots are almost "fully developed"...

Any ideas?

[ REMOVED ]

Gary

Last edited by moderator2; 10-27-2006 at 08:51 PM.
Reason: please do not ask members to violate the posting rules

Foryce spots can be quite deep inside your lip, so laser is need to remove the top layer/s of skin so that they can get them out easier.

think of the extraction part like removing hair with tweezers. the tool that was used was very similar, very small and fine. i don't think there's is much, if any, chance of scarring when the actual spots are removed. the scarring will ocur if they have to laser over the area a lot (if some spots are really deep and hard to get to, more laser is used). i guess it's almost impossible to tell how deep until the doctor takes a look, but most of mine were deep in the skin and required a few passes to get at.

if you ask your doctor about scarring, he/she will most likely tell you about two types. the first is a hypertrophic scar, which happens when the wound does not heal correctly and sort of closes in around the laser area. it appears red and raised. the second one is a Keloid scar, which is about ten times worse than the other. for an image example, look up both on google and read up on them too.
again, i don't think there will be much concern for scarring during extraction part, but definitely speak to your doctor about all possibilities.

being 28, i'd say they would fully developed. but i guess it all depends on the person. another thing to ask your doctor about.

finally, if you can ask about before/after photos or any type of reference they have on the condition. just so you get an idea on what type of knowledge & experience they have. just ask as many questions as you can! because i would hate to see someone make the same mistakes i made.

Just to pass on some info for those who might need this. I did my surgery 4 days ago, currently recovering. The lips look really bad now because of the bleeding, but I was told it will heal up in about a week. The doc made 2 passes on the lips, but from what I can see so far, there are some spots that are too deep that has not been destroyed. The spots I've got are on the side of the lower lips and around the middle and side of the upper. I will report more when the lip is healed up. I wouldn't go back and do a second time even not all spots are destroyed as it is quite inconvinent to have a f_cuked up lip for a week. Costed me $800 Canadian.